This has been a wild and crazy week. The quilting fairies gave me back a stack of quilts they had finished. That meant I had lots of bindings to make. Once I finished those, the quilts went to Beth to sew the bindings on, add labels, and hand stitch the binding down. The quilts traveled to Carrol next and she washed them for us. I delivered a nice stack of them to the hospital on Thursday and still have three to pick up from Carrol. Our system is working quite well. Shelly is working on some paperwork for us and Susan has been taking a vacation to see her son at the naval base in Groton, Connecticut. She finished up a large number of quilt tops before she left and says she can't wait to get back to her machine. I think that catches you up on all of us. I hope you have had a fun and productive week too.
Isn't this a bright and fun quilt. The squares have all kinds of animals.
And here is the quilt backing our quilter chose. Very fitting for this loveable quilt.
This is a bright quilt that would work for a girl or boy. It makes me think of a boy's quilt, but lots of girls like soccer so they would be happy with it too.
Of course the perfect backing is patriotic stars. They compliment the national flags in the blocks on the front of the quilt.
And last, here is a picture of some blocks I am playing with. They are commonly referred to as strings. You take strips and randomly sew them on some type of foundation. I made these blocks awhile back and decided to use some of them in a children's quilt. It is just another step in my never ending saga to use scraps! They are lots of fun to make and are somewhat addictive. Stay tuned for the final product!
Opportunities. There are those who think opportunties magically happen--something that comes along once in a lifetime. I happen to think they are waiting out there for us. But the trick is, you have to look for them. You aren't going to just stumble across them. Sometimes you have to nudge them, cradle them and nourish them. An opportunity may come out of something good or it may come out of something less. But an opportunity is only what we make it. Making quilts for the pediatric unit was an opportunity that I made happen. I certainly haven't made it happen alone. I have lots of help and encouragement. But even if I didn't, I still could seize the opportunity to make a difference for someone. I certainly wouldn't be at the 50 quilts donated mark, but I still would have been able to do something. In the letter that we give to the parents of a child receiving a quilt, I wrote, "Out of difficult situations come pieces of unexpected joy." Indeed it is true. We all go through difficult situations in our life. It is what we choose to do with those situations that matters. You can choose to find a piece of unexpected joy. I have and I wish the same for you.
